Lafayette breaks ground on $21.3M Public Works Campus
LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Ground was broken Wednesday morning on the $21.3 million Public Works Campus. The new structures will hold the Lafayette street, sanitation and fleet maintenance departments.
The new Public Works Campus - which is scheduled to be completed in 18 months - will sit on 11.27 acres with 8.9 acres being developed for the structures. These new structures will be located in Lafayette behind the new salt dome at 3601 McCarty Lane.
The campus will be made up of three buildings with the main structure being 132,000 square feet. Within that space, 66,000 square feet will be used for the street department, 32,000 square feet for fleet maintenance and 24,000 square feet for shared spaces.
An additional 10,000 square feet of space will be used for an open mezzanine that will be available for further office or storage space development, should the need arise.
Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski spoke about what these new facilities will mean for the City of Lafayette, especially in terms of long-term maintenance care for the city vehicles and equipment that will be stored in these buildings.
"We've wanted to do this for a long time," Roswarski said. "(The city vehicles and equipment) sit out in 100 degree temperature and below zero temperature. And we try to bring the ones in that we're using to keep them warm and thawed and leave the others out and at night. Having this is gonna be a huge step in the long-term maintenance of our equipment."
The new sanitation department will be housed in its own standalone, 16,000-square-foot building. It will be able to hold up to 18 trucks as well as a 2,800-square-foot car wash.
According to a release from the city, the fleet maintenance space will have 24 service bays for city-owned vehicles and equipment. This will include two electric charging station for Lafayette's first ever fully electric trash trucks. According to Roswarski, the facilities are "wired up" to allow for additional electric charging stations for more electric vehicles in the future, if needed.
The common spaces in the facilities will hold men's and women's locker rooms, a staff room, a fitness space, conference room and offices.
Roswarski stated that future plans for the existing spaces for the street/sanitation departments include "Lafayette's version of Central Park," as well as additional space for the parks department.
"The plan for the street department and the sanitation department on Third and Fowler," Roswarski said, "right now it's about a three-and-a-half to four acre site. We plan to turn that into Lafayette's version of Central Park. So when it's all down, we're gonna tear those buildings down, clean it all up.
"...We want to create another green space. Benches you can sit on, probably a fountain....And then the other part out by fleet maintenance, Canal Road, we're gonna use that to give parks' central maintenance some additional space."
Contractors who are a part of this project include Accompany LLC, Alderson Commercial Group, Cordogan Clark Keystone Architecture, GM Development Companies LLC, Kettelhut Construction, Inc. and TBird Design Services Corp.
Margaret Christopherson is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email her at mchristopherson@jconline.com and follow her on Twitter @MargaretJC2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette breaks ground on $21.3M Public Works Campus
